The Carolina Hurricanes, continuing to thrive on the road this season, made it two straight in Canada on Thursday with a 2-1 overtime win over the Calgary Flames. Sebastian Aho scored the winner with 52.4 seconds left in the OT, the second goal of the game for the Canes’ star center.
“We weren’t sharp and that’s a good team and don’t give you much,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It was just kind of, I don’t know, a gross hockey game. It wasn’t fun to watch, wasn’t fun to be a part of to be honest. But we dug in. We were battling but we weren’t very sharp. We were pretty fortunate.”
Five takeaways from the game:
▪ The game matched two of the best goalies in the league this season, Frederik Andersen of the Canes and Jacob Markstrom of the Flames. But some of the biggest saves of the game were made by Canes forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Aho and defenseman Jaccob Slavin in the third period.
First, Teravainen stuck his stick out and pulled the puck away from the goal line after it got through Andersen. Later, first Slavin and then Aho kept the puck out of the net with Andersen out of position, keeping it a 1-1 game. Andersen did have 26 saves, including some high-quality stops, and earned an assist when Aho skated the length of the ice to score the overtime winner.
“The guys made some great plays on those that was kind of going through and went in behind me,” Andersen said. “Awesome. I’ll take the help sometimes.”
— Jalen Chatfield has been noticeable for the Canes. It’s easy to spot No. 64, getting in checks and making good passes and plays in the D zone. There was gnashing of teeth when defensemen Tony DeAngelo and Brett Pesce went into the COVID-19 protocol, and more now that they’re both back skating again but not with the team in Canada.
But Chatfield and Max Lajoie have handled all that has been asked of them. They’ve also done it while veteran Brendan Smith has given the Canes some spotty play and Ian Cole suddenly can’t stay out of the penalty box. Ethan Bear, recently sidelined by COVID, was a scratch Thursday with an illness after taking the pregame warmup.
Despite the shakeup on D, the Canes have not slipped on the penalty kill and killed off five Flames power plays Thursday, including 56 seconds of a 4-on-3 by Calgary to start the overtime.
— Brind’Amour can’t seem to find the right fit for Andrei Svechnikov. The power forward again played on a line with Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast on Thursday. He has been on Sebastian Aho’s line. He was on Vincent Trocheck’s line.
Svechnikov is noticeable in games and was again Thursday but has not been a dominant player. He seems best with Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, or if not that, Trocheck and Necas. Staal and Fast do not seem to be the right fit for No. 37.
— How does he do it? Slavin has said he hasn’t felt that well the past week or so, but it never shows in games and didn’t Thursday. His workload: 32:28 of ice time, including 8:14 of shorthanded time. That came after he played almost 30 minutes Tuesday in the 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
“Obviously it’s not something we want to do,” Brind’Amour said. “We’re missing some great players here and to hang around, missing the guys we are, says a lot about him because he’s done a lot of the work but our group in general.”
— Defenseman Noah Hanifin scored the Calgary goal Thursday in the second period and could have had a second The former Canes D-man was awarded a penalty shot in the first period after knocking the puck away from Martin Necas and then taking a stretch pass from Johnny Gaudreau for a breakaway.
Hanifin was stopped by Andersen on the first-period penalty shot, the puck skidding just wide of the post, but beat Andersen with a shot from the point in the second period. The former Canes D-man, traded with Elias Lindholm with Calgary in June 2018, has become a fixture in the Flames lineup. In the time-flies department: Hanifin now has played 462 games.
